"Your grief will turn to joy"
Jesus’s imminent departure has been a recurring emphasis that evening, causing the disciples much anxiety, uncertainty and grief (13:33,36; 14:3-5; 14:28; 16:6). It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to them, for even in his public ministry Jesus had made this clear: “I am with you for only a little time, and then I go to the one who sent me” (7:33-34). But it was an unwelcome truth which the disciples chose not to hear.
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With his death now very close, it could be ignored no longer and Jesus speaks of it again (16), resulting in an outburst of questioning and confusion, summed up in “We don’t understand” (17-18). So, Jesus addresses their questions, and tells them emphatically that, yes, in “a little while” they’ll face deep sorrow. But then, also in “a little while”, they will see him again and their “grief will turn to joy” (19-20).
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His resurrection will inevitably dispel the grief of his death – on Easter Day, the disciples “were overjoyed when the saw the Lord” (20:20). And the resurrection means for all of us that we can face the sorrows of this world in the assurance that the story doesn’t end there. “Weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).